Iran, Hungary to Develop Mini Nuclear Power Plant

Iran and Hungary have agreed to cooperate in a joint mini nuclear power plant project, a Hungarian official announced.

Tehran and Budapest will create a small nuclear reactor for scientific and educational purposes, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Janos Lazar said on Thursday.

“When the Prime Minister was there, we undertook to take part in jointly creating a mini nuclear plant with educational, scientific purposes, and now this agreement will be implemented,” Lazar was quoted as saying by the RT, referring to Orban’s visit to Iran in 2015.

In February 2016, Iran’s top nuclear official Ali Akbar Salehi said the country had proposed a pilot project with Hungary to design a 25-megawatt reactor and then a reactor of up to 100 megawatts to be sold in Africa and Asia.

According to him, the reactor would fit the poorer countries in the region, as it requires less cooling water.

“One particular project that I suggested was to see if we can… together design a small reactor of 25 megawatts. It was received well, and we hope that we can start this project, just on paper,” Salehi said at the time.

The remarks come against the backdrop of a new wave of interest in ties with Iran after Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14, 2015 reached a conclusion over the text of a comprehensive 159-page deal on Tehran’s nuclear program and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

The comprehensive nuclear deal, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran.